Open Call: Alserkal Residency for Summer 2018

The Alserkal Residency is one of several imaginative initiatives that have come out of the UAE arts scene in the last couple of years. It’s intended as a platform for artistic and cultural experimentation and exchange that allows up to six cultural practitioners (artists, writers, curators or researchers) the time, funding and resources “to fully engage with the region”.

In practice this means the Residency should explore ideas that are research-based and socially engaged. There’s no requirement to actually produce anything, which in itself sets this programme apart from many others; but holders of the residency are expected to take part in a public programme that establishes some level of dialogue with both their peers and the wider UAE community.

The Alserkal Residency includes a usefully comprehensive package – a monthly stipend plus extra cash if needed for production or programming; single-room accommodation in a shared space with the other residents plus 24-hour access to an individual studio; and introductions to, mentorship by and critiques from art professionals. There’s even a return flight to your home city.

The Residency is open to mid-career artists, writers, curators and/or researchers – not just artists, in other words – who are currently citizens of or resident in the GCC. The Residency is actually based in a new 560 sq m warehouse space in Alserkal Avenue (render above) that has been designed by the architectural collective a hypothetical office (sorry, that’s the name – no initial caps. Which is the magpie style, too, of course).

Up to six residents can be accommodated, with proposals reviewed competitively by a scarily high-powered Selection Committee.

The Alserkal Residency programme runs three ‘cycles’ each year, and there’s an open call for applications now for the Summer 2018 Cycle – that will run from 1 May to 31 July 2018.